Canon R7 or R8 for Bird Photography

Hello all, for the past few months I have been sold on getting an R7 later in the year or when I turn 18, but that has all changed with the introduction of the R8. Now the R7 is an APS-C sensor, so I would get more 'reach' with it, but the R8 is a full frame, so I would lose that 'reach' that I get with the R7. Both AF systems are incredibly good for the price, but it seems that both cameras suffer from a variable amount of rolling shutter. I know that the R7 comes with a 15fps EF-C mode which pretty much eliminates the rolling shutter and the R8 also comes with an EF-C mode, but it only has 6FPs which isn't really enough for me. I have used the R7 for half a day and the results were very good, but I am intrigued as to how well the R8 performs in comparison. The R7 seems like the way forward for me, I am able to get more 'reach' which is something I quite enjoy having, which I can't get with the R8. I also shoot BIF quite a lot, and when using the R7 a month and a bit ago, the results I got were pretty good, and I was using the EF-C mode. As I said before, 6FPS is not really enough for me, and I am concerned with how much rolling shutter will occur with the R8 in 40fps, especially for very erratic and speedy subjects. Below are a few photos from when I used the R7 from a hide at Stodmarsh and one from another location.

Drake Gadwall coming in to land. This is a Jpeg file because I was having issues with the CR3 files in Photoshop and Lightroom.

Female black redstart from Reculver towers.

I am unsure which I should choose from, but I think I still want to go with the R7 because of the additional reach given and the 15fps EF-C mode.

Any comments welcome.

Kind regards,

Evan

I use R7 and I'm happy with it. R8 is an interesting camera. Yeah with mechanical and efc it has 6 fps but wih ec it has 40 fps like r6 ii. If you have 400 mm reach, crop sensor would be better.  On bird photography we don't know much about the af performance of the r8 but I think it would have slightly better af. Jared polin posted a video about testing r8 af in a basketball game and it look amazing.

R8 lacks better battery, handling, ibis and dual card slots.

If you don't mind using EFCS and are into birds, the R7 would be a much better fit than the R8. The difference between 6fps and 15fps is massive, especially if you have used 15fps before.

Personally, I'm more oriented towards fully electronic shutter, for natural light macro. So for me, the R8 is a better fit. But I would appreciate a lot more pixels-per-dragonfly!

OlcayK wrote:

[...] On bird photography we don't know much about the af performance of the r8 but I think it would have slightly better af. Jared polin posted a video about testing r8 af in a basketball game and it look amazing. [...]

I think the 'snappiness' of AF is proportional to the sensor readout speed. When I shot with both an R5 and rented R7 during vacation, the R5 AF seemed quicker and more responsive, but the new (mostly software) options in the R7 made it better at detection and tracking.

The R8 would inherit the pretty fast readout from the R6II, combined with the latest AF software. I'm very excited to test that!

koenkooi wrote:

If you don't mind using EFCS and are into birds, the R7 would be a much better fit than the R8. The difference between 6fps and 15fps is massive, especially if you have used 15fps before.

Personally, I'm more oriented towards fully electronic shutter, for natural light macro. So for me, the R8 is a better fit. But I would appreciate a lot more pixels-per-dragonfly!

+1 I’ve been considering trading in my R7 for an R8 (for macros) too!

For birding, it’s still R5 all the way (for me).

R2

Evan Atkinson wrote:

Hello all, for the past few months I have been sold on getting an R7 later in the year or when I turn 18, but that has all changed with the introduction of the R8. Now the R7 is an APS-C sensor, so I would get more 'reach' with it, but the R8 is a full frame, so I would lose that 'reach' that I get with the R7. Both AF systems are incredibly good for the price, but it seems that both cameras suffer from a variable amount of rolling shutter. I know that the R7 comes with a 15fps EF-C mode which pretty much eliminates the rolling shutter and the R8 also comes with an EF-C mode, but it only has 6FPs which isn't really enough for me. I have used the R7 for half a day and the results were very good, but I am intrigued as to how well the R8 performs in comparison. The R7 seems like the way forward for me, I am able to get more 'reach' which is something I quite enjoy having, which I can't get with the R8. I also shoot BIF quite a lot, and when using the R7 a month and a bit ago, the results I got were pretty good, and I was using the EF-C mode. As I said before, 6FPS is not really enough for me, and I am concerned with how much rolling shutter will occur with the R8 in 40fps, especially for very erratic and speedy subjects. Below are a few photos from when I used the R7 from a hide at Stodmarsh and one from another location.

Drake Gadwall coming in to land. This is a Jpeg file because I was having issues with the CR3 files in Photoshop and Lightroom.

Female black redstart from Reculver towers.

I am unsure which I should choose from, but I think I still want to go with the R7 because of the additional reach given and the 15fps EF-C mode.

Any comments welcome.

Kind regards,

Evan

I have the R7 and the R6Mii. For birding, I use the R7 around 70% of the time with my EF100-400mm Mii.

Often the biggest challenge in bird photography is getting close enough. The R7 appears to meet this need better than the R8, all other things being equal.

If you are going to shoot birds, you never can have enough reach.  I would go with the R7.  I have been using the R7 for birds with the RF 600 initially and eventually got the awesome RF 100-500 with what I consider excellent results.  I think the 15 fps electronic first curtain shutter in the R7 vs the 6 fps in the R8 is a big plus.  Autofocus is the same in both cameras.  Very high ISO files in the R7 are not a problem if you have DXO Pureraw.  Both are great cameras but for birds or wildlife go with the R7.

BirdShooter7 wrote:

If most of my bird photography was in the jungle I’d probably go for the R8 as you often can get closer to the birds and it’s usually pretty dark. For more open country (like your examples) I’d go for the R7.

+1

R7.  You'll get frustrated with the R8 given the lack of reach relative to an APSC.  Someone suggested an R5 but of course that's quite a bit more money. But that sensor combined with a very long and expensive lens can make up for the added reach that you would get from an R7.

R7 .... reach and sensor combined mean more pixels on the subject

You may be severely compromised with the reach and subject pixels on the R8 if you ever want to crop in

30FPS in electric mode is more than enough for still subjects but glorious for BIF (for a  second, or maybe two) ... shoot in short bursts and you will be OK

Denoise (Topaz or DXO) will be your friend ... I use Topaz Picture AI and find it sweet

Robbey TC

Learning all the time ... trying to get better pictures ... enjoying life